Welcome Home Baby Greta & her family!!!

Kim and Andrew had their baby girl last week in Vilnius.  Greta Louise was born on October 6th.  She was a couple of weeks early, so her lungs were a little weak and she was in the neonatal unit for a week.  The Student Life department had their monthly social gathering this week and decided to make some decorations for the Stave family's arrival back in Klaipeda at the end of the week.  Here are some photos of us working on the banner and my Community Life gals hanging it in the Stave's apartment...

 Working on the banner!

Margarita is SO talented! 

The BEAUTIFUL banner! 

The banner and LOTS of balloons!

My crazy Community Life gals!  :)

An evening with Levi!

The only other family in my building is another family from LCC - Brooke & Dariusz.  They both have birthdays in October.  A few weeks ago they asked me if I'd like to babysit for their 5 month old son (Levi)some evening so that they could go out to celebrate their birthdays.  Tonight was the night I got to hang out with little Levi.  We played, giggled, and listened to music on my iPod.  After about an hour or so he started "growling".  I was worried that he might start fussing, so I started walking/rocking him aroudn the apartment.  Within 5 minutes he was sound asleep.  I lounged on the couch the rest of the evening with him resting on my chest.  I used that time to just rest and to pray for people.  It was a delightful evening!  :)

Self portrait time w/ Levi!   

He loves that binkie! 

 Big bright eyes!

 Sleeping babe.

 I promise that I wasn't sleeping...just resting my eyes.  I DID take the photo afterall, so that should convince you! :)



More Supper @ Susie's!

The Res Life team from Neumann East came for dinner this week.  We had Pizza Rice Casserole - a "More with Less" cookbook favorite! 

 The Neumann East staff and their fearless leader - Becky!

The Neumann East staff brought me a flowering plant!  :)

Friday night fun with my First Year Seminar students!

Friday evening I met up with some of the students in my First Year Seminar group.  We went bowling and then came back to my place for dinner.  Here are some photos from our time together!

Bowling balls! 

A little bashful about getting their photos taken! 

The other team AKA: the Losers! 

My team AKA: the Winners! 

The Losers - the three on the right are students of mine.  The one on the left is a friend of one.

My team!  My student assistant is next to me in the photo and the guys are students in my class.

Gathered around my table after a wonderful meal of spaghetti & garlic bread.  You can see the highlight of the meal on the green plate...fresh baked homemade chocolate chip cookies!  :)

Another Supper @ Susie's! :)

The Karklu RAs came for dinner too!  They were SO much fun!  :)  I made Pakistani Kima...yummm!  Most people are used to having applesauce with a meal with me, but these sweet kids just gave me a confused look and asked me what it was for.  I explained that we usually eat it as a side dish.  They gave me a funny look, shrugged their shoulders and said it was worth a try.  I don't think any of them fell in love with it, but at least they tried it!  :)  I think that here it is most often used like applebutter is at home - to spread on bread.

The Karklu team with their fabulous RD - Veslava (in the pink in the middle of the photo) and me! 

Intercultural Olympics!

Last weekend we celebrated the LCC Intercultural Olympics!  Students broke into groups by country and participated in light hearted Olympic events...pillow fights, slip n slide, etc...

 The welcome banner!

The running of the flags during the "opening ceremonies" 

Pillow fights on a "log" 

Slip n Slide fun! 

Throw an egg at Niko - he's protected!

Wheelbarrow race...Lithuania's in the lead! 

The beauty of LCC!!! 

Nigeria's Independence Day

LCC has a wonderful tradition of celebrating the Independence Day of each country represented by someone on campus.  At noon we raise the flag of the celebrating country on the middle flag pole (the other two flag poles have LCC flags on them).  While we raise the flag we play the country's national anthem and then ask the people representing that country some questions about their homeland.  In the evening we have a longer session where they share about traditions in their home culture and we often enjoy some of their traditional foods! 

Last Friday, October 1, was Nigeria's Independence Day. Here are some photos from the celebrations...

 Raising the flag!

 The Nigerian flag flying with the LCC flags.

Two of our Nigerian students sharing with the noontime crowd. 

The absolutely adorable daughter of our Intercultrual Programs Director!  

She seriously is TOO cute!  :) 

Two of our Nigerian students answering our questions in the evening session.